THE HEAT (Rated R)

Melissa McCarthy has already mastered both verbal and physical comedy, having put her considerable talents on display in a big role (no pun intended) in director Paul Feig’s outrageously funny “Bridesmaids.”

“The Heat” reunites both the director and the outsized comedic actress for a hilarious buddy cop film, a genre that usually involves men. Offhand, I can’t think of another female buddy cop film.

Playing the part of the caustic, profane and erratic Boston beat cop Shannon Mullins, Melissa McCarthy is very much in her comfort zone as an abrasive and combative enforcer of the law.

The physical and mental toughness of Officer Mullins is established in opening scenes where she scares the wits out of petty drug dealers and streetwise prostitutes in encounters that quickly set up the film’s comedic premise.
 
Back at the police, her colleagues cower in fear of her constant harangues and bullying tactics. Her weary, gray-haired sergeant plaintively wails that he’s only 43 years old and his 5-year-old son calls him “Grandpa.”

Obviously, Mullins enjoys barking like a mad dog, pushing people around and acting impulsively, unafraid to look foolish in the process.

Frustrated that she’s has to park her beat up car in a tight spot between two police cars, she climbs through her window through the adjacent squad car in order to exit. Watching her maneuver with a lack of grace is typical of the slapstick humor.

After collaring a criminal by knocking him out with a watermelon, Mullins finds that her investigation into a drug ring is being hijacked by an FBI agent claiming federal jurisdiction.

The federal agent is Sandra Bullock’s Sarah Ashburn, an uptight, straight-laced stickler for abiding by rules and regulations, who wears dull, shapeless pants suits with an attitude to match.

Ashburn is the complete opposite of Mullins, who most often is seen wearing a T-shirt for the Pawtucket Red Sox, looking more like a dock worker unloading fishing boats in Boston harbor than an undercover cop.

Dispatched to Boston from the home office in New York, Ashburn has no friends, even at work, while at home she can only get occasional company by borrowing the neighbor’s cat.

From the very start, Ashburn and Mullins are practically at each other’s throats, displaying an unwillingness to work together that creates even more friction in the workplace.

Playing by the rules, Ashburn wants to minimize the use of force and disfavors the rough interrogation techniques used by her colleague. Mullins is likely unfamiliar with the Miranda rights.

We’re not even sure if Ashburn has ever fired her sidearm, while Mullins stocks the refrigerator of her shabby apartment with an impressive arsenal of weaponry, including assault rifles and a rocket launcher.

For a movie full of funny scenes, one of the best may be when Ashburn and Mullins go undercover at a sleazy dance club as they stalk a drug dealer cavorting with a bevy of hot women.

To turn Ashburn into something of a sex object to attract the attention of their target, Mullins rips apart her colleague’s uptight business clothes in the ladies room, trying to make the agent look more like a trashy club patron.

Not surprisingly, Mullins’ family is a screwball bunch of stereotypical South Boston brawling Irish louts, who remain irate that Mullins put her own brother (Michael Rapaport) in jail.

When not confronting various bad guys, much of the film consists of Mullins trying to pierce the veneer of Ashburn’s aloofness. A night of hard partying at an Irish dive bar does a lot to loosen up the FBI agent.

“The Heat” is rated R, primarily for language, or to be more precise, for trash-talking gutter talk, courtesy of the foul-mouthed Mullins who talks a greater blue streak than a crew of sailors on shore leave.

From the motor-mouthed Melissa McCarthy, the salty tirade of gratuitous insults and barbed witticism is provocatively funny. McCarthy’s Mullins is comic gold.

For her part, Sandra Bullock is a revelation, though she’s done comedy before. Here she’s a great comic foil, and an even better partner for the “odd couple” pairing with McCarthy.

“The Heat” is a laugh riot and insanely funny, and it is all thanks to the brilliant stroke of teaming of Bullock and McCarthy for a buddy film that, though mildly formulaic, delivers a crowd-pleasing comic gem.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.